


The Loyal Goat Pete

by tamalinn



Category: Smallville
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-09-21
Updated: 2004-09-21
Packaged: 2017-11-01 06:24:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,820
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/353080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tamalinn/pseuds/tamalinn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Have you ever wished for a magic goat?<br/></p>
            </blockquote>





	The Loyal Goat Pete

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to chasethecat and sparktastic for audiencing and cheering and all-around awesomosity. For Aelora's Fairy Tale Challenge, this is a rewrite of One Eye, Two Eyes, Three Eyes. Feedback puts Clark in a nice pair of pants.
> 
> Disclaimer: If they were mine, I'd only get the Kryptofreaks.

Once upon a time, long, long ago, a family founded a town on the outskirts of a wealthy kingdom. But as time and generations passed, the family fell upon hard times, and without health care, there was soon only one member of the founding family left. 

One day, as the last of the family, his pregnant wife and their young daughter were outside enjoying the sunshine, the sky suddenly darkened. There was a loud bang, and glowing green rocks plummeted to the ground. A small chip of one struck the young daughter in the middle of her forehead, knocking her unconscious, and a small chunk of another struck the wife on her stomach. Then, as suddenly as it had begun, it was over, and a small boy crawled out of the rubble. 

* * *

The wife insisted on adopting the boy who had come from the stars, even though Small was against it. As the years passed, the man's hatred for his son grew. Though his late wife had insisted Clark hadn't intended the destruction his arrival had caused, the man was never able to forgive Clark for the mutations in his daughters. After the storm, Helen had three eyes, a new one having grown where the stone had hit her. And from birth, Lana had only one, in the same place as her sister's third. But Clark had two eyes, and didn't look different than other people. So his father teased him mercilessly, while doting on his daughters so they would feel special and beautiful. As a result, Clark's sisters tormented him as well. 

"You with your two eyes," Helen would sneer, "You're no better than the ordinary folk!" 

Lana would chime in, "Yeah, you don't belong to us!" 

They would push Clark around, and his father would give him only Helen's hand-me-down dresses to wear, which Clark would don in humiliation, and would give Clark only table scraps to eat. 

* * *

The man liked to keep his beloved daughters, especially Lana, who had never known life with two eyes, close. Therefore, it was Clark's chore to go out to the fields and tend their goat. On one particular day, Clark was sent out with only gristle to eat for breakfast, while the man fed his daughters a filling breakfast of eggs and sausage and toast. Much of the rest of the day was spent teaching his daughters to read and write, and watching them with love, sadness and guilt as they played together and brushed one another's hair. Then he cleaned up around the house and prepared dinner for them. He left a bell pepper core aside for Clark. 

Yet when Clark returned home that night, he turned up his nose at the core and went straight to bed. The man looked at his loathsome son in confusion. 

* 

The following morning, Lana wanted to help make breakfast; but with her lack of depth perception, she spilled cereal all over the floor. He calmed her as she cried, and then swept up as much as he could, pouring it into a bowl for Clark. 

Clark grimaced at the food, and without taking one bite, left the house to tend the goat. When he returned that night, he refused the crusts of bread and went straight to sleep. 

The man was sure that something was going on, so he pulled Lana aside the following morning and asked her to tend the goat with Clark, and report back to him if anything strange happened. 

Yet when Lana returned that night, she was in tears. "I'm so sorry, father," she said. "I fell asleep in the fields and do not know if anything happened." 

"Hush, my dear," he soothed her and stroked her hair. "Tomorrow we will send Helen with him, and you and I will spend the day together, just the two of us." He gave her a kiss on the cheek and tucked her into bed. 

* 

So, as he had said he would, the following morning the man pulled Helen aside and asked her to tend the goat with Clark and report back to him. Then he spent his day somberly watching Lana ride her horse slowly around a jump-less ring. 

That evening, after Clark had gone to bed, Helen sat down with her father. "Father," she said, "I know why the bratty boy does not eat. When we arrived out in the field, he tried to sing me to sleep, but I closed only two eyes and left the third cracked. I saw him speak to the goat. He said, 'Loyal goat Pete, bring me food to eat,' and suddenly a richly filled table appeared before him. Clark ate and drank until the table was cleared, and then he said, 'Loyal goat Pete, I've had enough to eat,' and the table disappeared. I saw it all quite clearly." 

The father bolted up from his chair furiously, and dragged Clark out of bed by his ear. "You think you deserve a better life than we do?" he roared. "I'll put an end to your taste of that." He grabbed a butcher knife and gutted the goat. 

"PETE!" Clark cried as the father laughed cruelly. Clark tore out of the house, tears streaming down his face. 

* 

Later that night, Clark returned, and calmly asked for Pete's entrails. The father laughed again and said, "Sure, Two Eyes. Whatever you can scrape off the floor is yours." He went to bed as Clark hurriedly swept the guts into his hands. 

The following morning, a magnificent tree had grown at the entrance to the house. Its leaves were silver and it bore golden fruit. 

* 

The family stood gathered at the base of the tree, and the father eyed the fruit greedily. "Lana," he began, "Would you like to climb up and pick us some of that delicious fruit?" 

Lana nodded excitedly, but wasn't strong enough to get a good grip. She kept sliding back down the trunk. 

"Sorry, Papa," Lana said sadly. 

"It's okay, it's okay," the father said, glaring at Clark while petting her hair. "Helen, you're stronger. Would you pick us some of that delicious fruit?" 

"Of course, father," Helen said, and she climbed the tree. But when she reached up for the fruit, the branches pulled away from her. She climbed back down, frustrated. 

The father finally climbed the tree himself, but fared no better than his daughters had. 

"May I try?" Clark asked quietly, scuffing his toe in the dirt. 

"You," Helen jeered, "With your two eyes, what do you think you can do?" 

But Clark climbed up, and the apples didn't retreat from his grasp. Rather, they dropped right into his hand, and he soon descended with an apron full of them. The father seethed with jealousy and anger. He took the fruit from Clark and divided it among his daughters and himself. After that, he stopped feeding Clark altogether. 

* * *

One day, as they all stood again at the base of the tree, a handsome young knight rode up to them. 

"Quick, Clark," the father hissed before the man reached them, "Hide under there so that you won't disgrace us." He quickly grabbed a nearby barrel and upturned it over Clark, kicking the luscious apples Clark had just picked under there with him. 

As the knight drew closer, the father noticed his daughters were staring at the tall, bald man. Helen's third eye bugged out, and Lana brushed her long, sleek hair back from her face. The man dismounted his horse and gazed up at the tree. He asked the father, "Whose tree is this? Whoever fetches a branch from it can have whatever she wants from me." 

The father was ecstatic. "My lord," he said with a bow, "This lovely tree is my daughter Lana's." He ignored Helen's glower and continued, "She would be honored to fetch you a branch." But once again, Lana was unable to climb the tree. 

The knight raised an eyebrow and said, "I do not understand why you would lie to me." He turned to Helen and asked, "Perhaps this tree is yours?" 

A second of Helen's eyes bugged out, and she said, "My lord, forgive my father and little sister. They have never been before such grace and beauty, and my father stumbled when he said the tree was Lana's. It is mine, and I would be honored to fetch you a branch." She climbed up into the tree, but as she reached for the branches, they all withdrew from her grasp. 

Stiffly, the knight spoke again. "You have told me this was your tree, and yet you are both unable to break a small branch from it." The knight turned and began to walk away. 

The father and both his daughters continued to insist the tree was theirs, when they heard a voice call out, "My lord! Forgive my sisters, and forgive me, please. The tree is mine. It grew here one night where I buried the entrails of my pet goat." 

The father yelled, "He lies, he is nothing!" 

But the knight pointed his sword at the father and spoke coldly to Clark, "If that is your tree, I am sure you will be able to fetch me one of its branches." 

Clark swallowed. "Of course, sir," he said, and he climbed the tree. He did not pick a branch, however. The most lush of them all, full of silver leaves and bearing golden fruit, leapt into his open hand. Clark descended and handed the branch to the knight. 

The knight smiled warmly at Clark and Clark visibly melted. "Thank you for this branch. What do you wish in return?" He stepped into Clark's personal space and breathed against his neck, "And, please, tell me your name." 

The father cringed in disgust. 

"Clark," his son squeaked and cleared his throat. "Clark," he repeated. "And I should like a life where I am not hungry and abused." He shot a glare at his father. 

The father glared back. "I gave you nothing you didn't deserve for hurting my daughters," he sneered. 

The knight ignored him and whispered against Clark's lips, "Then come with me." Clark and the knight mounted the horse and rode away. 

* * *

Helen turned to her father and yelled, "Why did you tell the man that the tree was Lana's? Should not I, as the oldest, be married first?" 

The father held up a hand to stop his daughter's tirade. "I said it was Lana's because she has never known a life like anyone else's. She has never had two eyes. Once upon a time, you did." 

Lana dissolved in tears, in anger and resentment of what she had missed. Helen ran off furiously into the fields. 

The father sighed unhappily and looked at the tree. "At least we still have you," he said. "I know you will someday bring my daughters happiness I cannot." 

The next morning, the tree was gone. 


End file.
